Big island 7/3-7/7 and Oahu 7/7-7/13 new diver suggestions for AOW

My wife and I just received our OWC yesterday. We both love diving and want to see more, improve our skills and generally have fun. Our instructors suggested trying to get our AOW either during or before our trip. I see pros and cons to both situations.

Pros to getting it before we leave are can just dive and a little more flexibility while we are there instead of spending 2-3 days getting certified.

Cons are learn in a warmer environment in Hawaii, the AOW courses on the island don't seem to include peak performance buoyancy which I have read is one of the most important.

I would welcome your thoughts and what dive shops to use either for training or just diving depending on the above.

Thanks

I would suggest that you at least get OW certified at home or get all the preliminaries and pool work done an do your cert dives here. I dive with Kaimana divers. Gabe will treat you right.

If you can, get your AOW manual and read and do the knowledge base. then you can do your dives during your trip. I did my OWC and AOW with Ocean Legends in Honolulu. they don't have their own boat, but still was a pretty good outfit.

Oahu Scuba Diving 808 852 8881 | Tours, Activities & Dive Training | Oahu Dive Shop | Scuba Diving Oahu Hawaii

If you want to do your AOW while on this trip, give Gabe at Kaimana Divers a call (or PM him here...scottitheduck). Do all your reading before you get here, then take care of the dives while on Oahu. Gabe and the other KD crew will take care of you.

That being said, get out and dive as much as possible. While additional training is good, you need to dive to refine the skills taught and make them second nature.

Any reason to jump right into AOW? What about just enjoying the dives while on vacation? Get some experience under your belt. Find out if you really enjoy the hobby and want to continue.

We dove for a couple years with only an OW cert before advancing, just having fun. I found the lessons and training made more sense to me after some experience. Then my employment took us to the Big Island, where we dove more and continued the training.

Can we break up the AOW course like we did for the open water course? I wonder about taking peak performance and underwater navigation at home, night diving and one other on the big island, be it deep diving or wreck diving and then take the last one on Oahu.

I would like to be able to do the night diving on the big island to try to see the mantas. Other than that I just want to continue to learn practice my skills and have fun.

The reason for going right into AOW is to see some of the things on Hawaii that we would not be able to see if we didn't have it, I.e. the manta dive. We will likely do other dives while on the islands aside from just the AOW dives, and we will definitely be getting a few more dives under are belt back home before we leave.

On Oahu we are staying on the north shore, how hard is it to get to the above referred dive shops and are they worth the extra time or is their something equally good closer. I am currently in Puerto Vallarta and had the chance to witness two different dive shops operate, and I am willing to spend more/take more time to use a really good operation(thanks PVSea Dive) and am looking for one on Oahu.


---------- Post added May 14th, 2013 at 06:43 AM ----------

[/COLOR]

acooper:

Any reason to jump right into AOW? What about just enjoying the dives while on vacation? Get some experience under your belt. Find out if you really enjoy the hobby and want to continue.

We dove for a couple years with only an OW cert before advancing, just having fun. I found the lessons and training made more sense to me after some experience. Then my employment took us to the Big Island, where we dove more and continued the training.

Click to expand...

Who do you dive with on the big island. Is one operator alot better than the other? We will be staying at the Hilton Waikoloa village unless we can find a place that will sleep 7 for less. (My entire family is coming).

Thanks!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

On you AOW you will have to do deep and nav, they only take a few minutes, My deep and wreck were combined. Depending on your air consumption you may also be able to sneak ppb in also. As for as the distance, driving from the north shore to the south doesn't take that long. I was supposed to do a refresher on the south at a beach cove in Waikiki, but being that it was a holiday that wasn't possible. We drove to the north shore and caught the morning boat before it left.

Deep and Nav if taught right should take more than a few minutes. My Nav dives are at least an hour plus the classroom. Deep? 45 -55 minutes total run time. Again plus class time. Nav is a critical skill for the safe and competent diver. Deep may save your butt if it includes learning when you should not be doing it. Combining deep and wreck is a lazy instructors technique.

I think the closest shop to the North Shore is going to be Deep Ecology, who has a good reputation. I assume they offer an AOW class, though I'm not sure.

Deep and Nav should never be combined. It clearly states that all training dives must be conducted independently. The reasoning here is you don't want newer divers getting too loaded with tasks. In this circumstance:

"Oh man, I've never been deep before...... that means I'm going to go through my air quickly...... or I might get narced..... or I might freak out...... a compass, seriously? You want me to do what?"

I see no reason why you couldn't go either way. Can plan training dives ala carte while bouncing through the islands or you could look for an operator that matches up nicely with your styles. There is some good reasoning in the prior posts about diving just to "have fun and dive" as well. Some of my students in the past have taken that route and just logged another 10 dives after Open Water and are far more comfortable, competent and confident going into the AOW course.

Just my two cents.....

G